Christmas and the Celtic Solstice Mystery......

The paper piecing project...

Tractor joe calls our niece Amanda Panda. So, just days before Christmas, I was paper piecing. As I worked on it, I was absolutely sure I would NEVER do it again.

It is confusing.

And messy. But I kept going. 

Here is the finished mug rug. I think it is about 8 by 10 inches.

(the free pattern is here)

It is supposed to be a 6 inch block, but when I printed it....

it was more like 8 inches square. This was okay, some of the sections are so small!

Amanda loved her panda, and as the pain of this subsides....

I may even make another one someday.

The Money Tree....

I wanted a tree to dispense dollar bills that I had taped together into a roll. Only I had no idea how to make one. I opened up a box of never used Christmas decorations...

Found an angel to use instead.

This was for a 20 something nephew. He had the biggest frown of confusion as he followed the directions on his gift.

Just in case he only lifted the tag, I wrote "the dress, not the tag"

I cut a slit in the tube so the rolled money would pull out. He pulled about 10 bills out right away. I told him that I should have added "as needed"  so he re-rolled them and put them back in place.

I think he liked it. 

The mystery continues....

(intro to the Mystery quilt)

We are at step 5 with Bonnie's mystery. I am still sewing that step together.

I had a few done, so I played with all the sections.

This could go in a lot of different directions. I'll just wait for the reveal now.

And hopefully finish up Step 5 today.

tea towels.....

Sophie is having a tea towel challenge.

(click here for link to tea towel challenge 2014)

When it first came up, I wasn't sure....All I could picture were the tea towels with calendars on them. I had NO idea there were tea towels that didn't have calendars.

I found one online that I really loved. It was $20.00. 

Wow...... did I want to spend that much?

For a towel???

Then I found these retro looking ones. 

They came as a 4-pack. I thought they were adorable.

(and cheaper)

I could use one and give the rest to my middle son for Christmas. He needs kitchen towels and loves to fish. But when they arrived they were in a fabric envelope. I cut that apart....

I plan on making some mug rugs from it. He will also get all four towels.

It will be nice practice for the real towel.

The challenge towel,

the one I really love....

After thinking and thinking, 

I ordered it.

The Iowa tea towel. 

I thought about using old embroidery and cutting it up,

I have thought about using selvage edges,

But now I don't know. I have time to mull it over, not a lot, but some time yet.

bags and the mystery quilt......

Last weekend I painted on canvas. I put a white wash over this yet. It needed to be a little softer I thought. Then I cut it up into three sections......

This was the first finished bag. I have one more that needs handles yet. 

And one more piece of canvas that can be sewn into a bag.

Also last weekend I started the Bonnie Hunter Mystery.

click here for INTRO PAGE and links to steps so far

My colors are different. Using red instead of blue. Using yellow instead of orange.

The backgrounds are all whites to creams.

Step Two...the green is blue and the yellow is orange in mine.

I have no idea if these colors will end up working. Time will tell.

I'm in the middle of these chevrons. Hope I get them done today.

bindings finally done.....

It is cold and windy, so outdoor pictures were done quickly. 

Under the roof (out of the wind) out back. Tractor joe agreed to hold them all up one at a time. Now I wish he had put on better shoes. You can see that his slippers have a hole.

New slippers are on his Christmas list. His sister will get this quilt.

I have been calling this one mini-me. It is made with left over Block Lotto blocks. I wanted it a little bigger so I made some blocks, but didn't use plaids. It is for my cousins grandson. It is just like the one I made her last winter.(a picture of hers is here)

Last, but not least, is the scrappy trip. It is a wedding present for a nephew that was married last summer. We thought we were in a group gift. Then AFTER the wedding we found out there was NO GROUP gift. We were on our own. Last winter I thought about making them one, but never got it done. So, they end up getting a quilt after all. 

This is the third scrappy trip I have made. I love this pattern by Bonnie Hunter!

I am so thankful that the bindings are done! My least favorite thing to do!

birds....

I have been going back and forth on projects. With a day off from work, it was time to sew bird blocks together and make a center. Right now it is 42 x 54.

Both the birds and big hearts are block lotto patterns.

(low volume hearts, click here)

and

(for the bird directions click here)

No, I didn't win these. I had made my blocks for the drawing, and then kept on sewing more birds because I loved them. I will put a narrow black border on this and them some blue and red nine patches will go in the border. 

The little red hearts are basically 4 patches with the four corner triangles added. 

One more cup of coffee and then I will think about what to work on today.

my cousin's scout quilt......

My cousin Gwen started a quilt this past summer. Actually TWO quilts. One for her son and one for his friend. Her idea was to use all these boy scout words.

She went out and bought Tonya's Word Play book and studied that.

She quizzed me about making letters. 

And then she started cutting and sewing.

She didn't stop until she had all these words!

She flew in from New Mexico for the weekend and brought all the words for one of the quilts.

We laid it out on the motel room floor. So the lighting isn't very good. It is actually brighter in real life. The background is whiter and the words are red, blue, brown and black.

Gwen is at the filler stage. 

Her husband wants her to make some fluer-de-lis emblems.

She thought pine trees in the gaps.

I thought stars, so she has a few of those from me.

We thought maybe a few American flags here and there.

She would like to add gold/yellow but isn't sure how. My mom says yellow stars mean a fallen soldier. So she threw that idea out. 

I just had a thought....what if the background of the stars were the gold and not the stars themselves. 

What else? What are we not thinking of?

Austin, Minnesota, home of Hormel and Spam....

Last weekend, Karen's baby was married up in Austin, MN. It was also the weekend for the Quilt Show here in town. Karen left me three of her quilts. I took a picture of them before taking them over to the show. We missed the show on Saturday, but I did help set it up Friday night. The lighting in the gym is awful, so I have no pictures. 

The reception was at the Hormel Historic Home. We were in the banquet hall behind the house, but the house was open for us to go roam around. Beautiful old wood work.

I love Spam, so that is what I had for breakfast Sunday morning...

Scrambled eggs and Spam. We talked about going to the Spam Museum.

But only stopped long enough to find a geocache and take a picture. 

I want to go back, it looks like a fun place to visit!!!

There is a cache at the rest stop on I-90 headed west. We stopped and I went walking in the woods. There was no clear path, just heading in the right direction with the GPS. Bushwhacking through bushes and fallen trees. I went alone, tractor joe stood on the edge and waited for me to come back out.

Cache found, we got back in the car to continue our ride home.

It was cold and rainy outside. The windows were all up and the heat was on. It took about 15 seconds for tractor joe to accuse ME of stepping in dog poo.

Right about then, I started to smell it. It was a horrible, gagging smell.

I needed to roll down the window for fresh air.

Even COLD fresh air was welcome at that point.

AND....it wasn't me! He had stepped in it himself. If he had gone into the woods with me, this might not have happened. We pulled off at the next exit and he did some major scraping. The rest of the ride home was much more pleasant.

I made 16 more of these string blocks. I have no idea how I will use them. I added them to the stack. 

block lotto leaves and the porch....

These are the leaves for October's block at block lotto.

For what ever reason, I can't access block lotto this morning. Will have to try again later. Sometimes I give away my chances to be in the drawing. Not these. I am in.

It has been cloudy and dreary all week. The following pictures are from Sunday when the sun was shining.....

Here is a before shot of the porch.

We got the bulk of it done on Sunday. I did all of the rails along the bottom. Tractor joe took care of all the stuff above. It looks great finished! It is screaming...

"hang a quilt over my railing!"

what is new around here.....

Last weekend, Karen and I went down to Des Moines for the quilt show. 

Captain A-moo-ica was there with the Cow Stampede. It was a herd of cows all made from the cow pattern in

[Out of the Box with easy blocks]

They are a joy to look at. As we looked at other exhibits of quilts, we could hear laughter. You knew it was the cows tickling someone's funny bone.

There are pictures of them here....

[marylou.blogspot.com/2013/10/cows-grazing-in-iowa]

We bought books and fabric. We walked around until my feet and Karen's knees could take it no longer. Our shoulders and necks were getting tired from the weight of our bags. We knew it was time to leave. Besides the show was closing in 15 minutes.

I could use a new sewing machine.

My 30 year old Montgomery Ward is not sewing well at all.

The cheap Brother doesn't feed feed straight. It works well for small quilting jobs,

but that is about it.

A while back tractor joe bought an old dirty VIKING. We cleaned and played with it.

Then he went and tinkered with it some more.

It sews beautifully....except the only direction it sews now is BACKWARDS.

I told him to stop messing with it, but NO, he thought with a little more adjustment he would have it sewing just right. Heavy sigh.

It isn't a total loss of $6.00. The cabinet is now being used for a drill press. Dave needed a stand and this seemed like a good place for it. He doctored it up and painted it black. 

There was also a pair of really nice Gingher scissors in one of the drawers.

So, right now the best machine I have is the 60 year old Singer. I started sewing small squares together. Everything seems to be in working order. I plan on sewing this weekend and this is where I will be.

Only first I need to go to the county jail and get fingerprinted for work. What a pain.

Another "Dave find"....

The bank in town, the one that burned down over a year ago is finally moving into it's new building. They had been housed in a temporary trailer house type building. A front porch was attached to it. When Dave found out they were going to just trash it, he asked for it and was told he could have it. 

He had major plans for it. Only when he went to do some measuring, he found out it would not work where he wanted it. He wanted to know if we wanted it.

Yes!

This is how it looked when I arrived home from work the day it came here. The railing now goes all the way across where tractor joe is sitting, and there is a finished step where Dave is sitting. 

I thought it was pretty darn cute.

finished tops...

Last Monday Karen and I went to our first EVER quilt guild meeting. They proclaim themselves to be laid back and with no rules. We enjoyed it very much. We paid our $5.00 dollar yearly dues and became official members of the Blue Earth Valley Quilters Guild. 

During the meeting there was some discussion on.... 

Girlfriend or Boyfriend quilts. In general, no one wants to make them.

What if they break up?? Are they the kiss of death to a couple?

Crispy has a girlfriend. Of course I want to give her a quilt...but you know she is

"only a girlfriend"

After thinking about it some more, I decided I will get this star top quilted and give it to her. It has been sitting in the closet for several years. I made it during the summer of 2010.

(Quilt Along 2010)

I think I even have some pink fabric for the back!

It is better to give it away to be used, instead of gathering dust in the closet. 

Big sewing day yesterday. I finished the scrappy trip quilt (no picture)

and the mini-me....

It is for my cousin Gwen's grandson. He was born a couple weeks ago. It has left over Block Lotto blocks from hers and a few more I made. I didn't use plaid for the new blocks. 

Instead of mother/daughter quilts, they are 

grandma/grandson quilts.

Block directions here....(hot-crossed-9-patch-block-tutorial)

block lotto blocks.....

"

This is the quilt made from split star blocks I won at Block Lotto. (last fall I think)

The blocks required solid white fabric. There was no solid white at my house. 

Our good friend Dave (sticking out from behind the quilt) was in Mason City. He called and asked if we needed anything. I told him white fabric. He said, "No problem."

I was so surprised and happy. 

I promised that if I won, the quilt was his. 

It was his turn to be happy and surprised when I did win the blocks.

He picked out the navy and gold colors to sash it with. He even shopped by himself for that fabric! 

He loves that the blocks are made by quilters from all over.

He loves it SO much that it is no longer for his bed. He wants to hang it.

So today we are all going shopping for supplies to get this hung in his living room.

This is the back of it. Dave was in the Navy during Vietnam.

Two weeks ago Karen and I went to Blue Earth Minnesota for a Wood Carvers/Quilt show.

We have wanted to go to a guild meeting up there for months now. They say they are the guild with no rules. We liked that idea. But haven't made it yet.

Karen and I have talked about taking up wood carving. These are just too cute.

But with work and sewing we feel that is enough for now.

They had Darlene Zimmerman the "feed sack lady" there doing a trunk show.

I loved this blue and white quilt she was talking about. It is two different blocks set on point. 

Here are a couple more of her quilts....

Beautiful.

We also decided to take part in this years challenge. For $10.00 you bought a package of 10 inch polka dot fabrics. 24 in all. 

I am combining them with these fabrics.

Making another Block Lotto block from the past.

They are the Star Crossed blocks from December of 2012. There wasn't a link to the directions.

But! there was a link to the Split Star directions

I think I am caught up now.

School started and we were hit with a heat wave. We were getting out a few hours early every day. All this did was give me a couple extra hours of not doing much of anything.

The coming week is looking a whole lot better.

red sky at night sailor's delight.....

This is the last chunky block I made for this quilt. When I had 32 sailboats made, I had no idea how to lay them out into a top. 

Then I saw this quilt again... made by brooklynquilter...for her dad with blocks she had won at block lotto. This was the blue print. I made 4 more boats for a total of 36.

Four boats per chunky block and one star (nine total)

The boats became tall or wide as needed by adding fabric for filler.

The stars only needed to be laid tall or wide.

It measures 68x74. The borders remind me of "modern"....big and fat,

but it also has a "Amish" look to it with the black,

there is also free piecing or wonky.

The best category it falls into is DONE!

School starts back up in one week. 

I haven't touched my scrappy trip around the world in weeks now. Back to this one. Over half the blocks are made, the rest are all tubes ready to go. 

Before I do that, I will work on my contracted braille class.

We were given a big bag of sweet corn. Need to get that ready for freezing.

We canned peaches the other night.

I feel like a domestic goddess getting ready for winter!